NEARLY everyone in the Ursuline Convent in Thurles, Co Tipperary, plays a musical instrument, and the importance the school places on music prompted students there to investigate sound, its transmission and the problem of noise pollution.
Andrea Ryan, Pauline Kelly and Orlagh O'Connell investigated how sound was transmitted and noise levels in their homes, school, disco and in the street.
Their project led them to produce musical in a brochure on sound pollution and an alarm which flashes when 5ound levels rise above 85 decibels, the level at which damage can be done to hearing. Using a sound meter, they discovered that the noise level in the local disco was between 100 and 120 decibels.
They distributed a questionnaire to their classmates on the dangers of excessive noise and discovered there was little awareness of these dangers. They also found that using a Walkman in the street could be dangerous as the distance of cars could not be properly judged.
Experimenting on sound reduction, especially between semi-detached or terraced houses, they found underlay to be most successful. They found that hearing degenerates with age, with the acuteness of the hearing of a teacher over 40 in their school about half that of a 10-year-old child.